Here is a link to a more thorough article concerning the illegal harvest of 108 North American Wood Turtles (NAWTs) for sale in the pet trade:
http://www.fws.gov/news/NewsReleases/showNews.cfm?newsId=7A72BF11-BB33-6D9F-C7D31BEDC30C6485

Here is a nice picture of some of the 108 wild NAWTs that were confiscated:
http://www.fws.gov/Northeast/images/feature/turtles.jpg

Here is also a nice picture of the collector from a website showing, "34 people who have influenced the herp industry in Florida.":
http://www.corn-utopia.com/Corn Utopia on the Web/Herpers Past & Present/Commercial Herpers of Florida.htm

And here is a link to an article in the Broward County News detailing how this collector, "...visits countries that are closed to exports under CITES and "lobbies" government officials to allow him to start sending out the first legal shipments of a given species. "You tell them how much you want to take out and that you are not going to be detrimental to the population," says Ellard, adding that many countries are arbitrarily closed to live-animal exports, even when a given species may not be endangered. "Paraguay was closed, and I got the first shipments out last year. The only problem is that, once you open a place up, within six or eight months, everybody's jumped in." Here's the link:
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/1999-02-04/news/cold-blooded-smuggling/5

Great stuff, huh? When was the last time YOU saw a NAWT in the wild? Think about it.

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